Gregory Page - Shine, Shine, Shine (2013)

Not the normal SpaceRockMountain fare, but quality music that needs a larger audience. Gregory Page is a staple of the San Diego music scene and has been churning out what would have been standard pop music 60 years ago, but now sits in a small stable of acts that produce records from the Big Band days of Jazz. 

Gregory’s newest full length is titled Shine, Shine, Shine and finds him comfortably crooning over a hefty band capable of transporting your ears to a time when folks received food rations, married at 19, and owned transistor radios that hummed every summer evening. As I finish up work on my solo Elvis Dracula record, Gregory’s records have been played in concurrence with Chet Baker and Billie Holiday in recording sessions intended to situate myself in the musical world necessary to craft tunes from this era. 

Try and listen to the title track from Shine, Shine, Shine and not smile. Romanticism of the past is a fools errand, but there is nothing to Gregory’s music that is deserving of derision or scorn. 

Buy or stream it here:

Gregory Page - Shine, Shine, Shine (2013)

EP Grab Bag vol. 29

As always I know I haven't been on top of the submitted material, and I did just share a bunch of it with my buddy Elvis to see if we might get through it a bit more efficiently. I have been distracted by literature, and can you blame me? I work in a bookstore and I keep spending a sizable amount of my paycheck on novels I haven't time to read. So here's what I've heard so far and I do hope it is as enjoyable to you as it was for me.

To be had here:

Helical Scan - Helical Scan EP (2013)

From Grand Rapids, MI this is a dream pop/shoegaze band's first EP. A rather impressive effort for the first go-around. Distortion-laden and mildly chaotic sounds like a group getting its bearings yet holds considerable potential. Moreover the singer they've got provides stunningly lovely vocals.





Bill Times a Billion - Say It Nicer (2013)

A two-piece from Buffalo that makes some stripped down garage rock. This is an adorable eight track EP that features a combination of originals and covers. In particaular the covers are of Robert Pollard, Tommy James and the Shondells, and Sam Cooke. Despite the track count it is a short and sweet affair, being only roughly 14 minutes, each of which is worth a listen.




The Lucky - The Lucky EP (2013)

Here we've got a Kansas City-based garage rock band that does a fairly more pop style despite being heavier on the guitar and drums. Oddly enough the third female vocalist with remarkable talent to be featured in this Grab Bag. Not a free download via bandcamp (as always streamable) but I guess there might be some way to get it here, but I can't really endorse that site as I've no experience with it and I hold I strong distrust of most anything integrated with facebook.


Preludes - Berlin [EP] (2013)

A perennial feature for the Grab Bag, Preludes have returned with another of their prolifically produced EPs. This is perhaps the most subtle and ethereal of any of the EPs thus far reviewed on Spacerockmountain. This is no knock, quite the contrary I find the very slow build and the refined style Preludes as finely honed to be an excellent example of the most relaxing music I know of.

Romero - Take the Potion (2013)

Now, this is some awesome stuff. Huge, Black Sabbath inspired riffs with sludgy, weed hazed head-banging passion, and you have the new release from Romero. For a 3 piece, these guys have a subterranean, layered sound that’s comfortable enough with itself to take from Prog when the opportunity arises. I can’t help but feel this group is the evil doppelganger to Merlin’s Magic Music Box, a group I wrote about here some time ago.

The title track from the record is still ringing in my head, and you can download it for free or buy one of those vinyl record thingies. Let’s hope they go out on the road and hit up the West Coast this coming summer.

Get this bad boy here:
Romero - Take the Potion (2013)

Dusty Mush​/​The Future Primitives Split (2013)

What we've got here is a wonderful combination of tracks from two previously posted on and much beloved, my yours truly at very least, garage rock bands. A cross-continental (South Africa and France) effort I was happy to see taking place. God bless these borderless internets. As for the tunes themselves, it is a fine collection of intensely preformed lo-fi garage rock. Dusty Mush's music improves exponentially with every succeeding release. Each of the fuzzy ditties on this split have blazed their way into my memory so much that I've been taking unsanctioned breaks at work just to rehear them.  The Future Primitives do treat us to some surf with the brief "Instro"but delve rather sharply thereafter into fine garage punk. "Try On Something Tha's Really You" is exactly the sort anthem that'd like blast from the shoddy speakers my hoopty if I hadn't ditch it. Fantastically conceived of pair of bands and if you didn't heed my words when I've previously posted them this'll make a grand introduction.

To be had here:
Dusty Mush​/​The Future Primitives Split

Those Howlings - Manifest Blasphemy (2012)

Garage rock, the most savory of audio flavors, really does keep me enjoying doing this blog, when I find the time to do so. For example, here we've got a garage rock band that formed in Chicago and now resides in Austin (two city which this Detroit-dweller envies), Those Howlings. As finely lo-fi as you'd hope and more catchy and endearing than you may be expecting, Manifest Blasphemy is a wonderful display of a more cheerful rock and roll that employs a charming amount of doo-wop, country and surf influences. Lovely combination of male and female vocals and the versatility of their playing make the album incredibly listenable. Yet for whatever reason the album doesn't seem to be downloadable via the bandcamp site but it is streamable and worth doing so. They're supposed to be coming out with a 7" in Austin soon as well, so hopefully I'll get to share that with you all.

To be had here:
Those Howlings - Manifest Blasphemy (2012)

Ivan and the Parazol - Mama, Don't You Recognize Ivan & The Parazol? (2012)

What do you know about Hungary? Not much I assume. Truth is, I don't know much either. I do know that I like Ivan and the Parazol who just so happen to be from the country. They say they incorporate "influences from the the 60’s-70’s new wave genres," and I do hear tints of that, but a lot more from the mid-2000s British garage revival. It is catchy, playful, and willing to just go with what sounds good when need be. My favorite track off their full length is "Swindie (Panic at the 'Background')," which displays a much needed intensity missing from lots of rock music that may very well make the radio in this day and age.

This record also rules for one single reason: it was mastered by a man named Zoltán Takác. How bad ass is that?

Get it here:
Ivan and the Parazol - Mama, Don't You Recognize Ivan & The Parazol? (2012)

The Orwells - Remember When (2013)

I grew up in a small desert town, and we didn’t have a mall. The closest thing that comes to mind was a half abandoned strip mall that featured a discount goods store and beauty salon. Watching Kevin Smith’s Mallrats was my only window into the slaker, Mall-lurking culture that apparently was rather popular throughout the US.

But youthful rebellion and disregard for society’s norms? That I could always get behind. Mix that with a healthy dose of hook heavy lo-fi garage rock, and you have a recipe for success... or at least a recipe for fun.

The Orwells are from somewhere in Illinois, and just based on the picture of the band present on the cassette released by Burger Records, I would say these kids are pretty young. They write lots of great songs about pissing off your elders, getting suspended, and just fucking around. The first single from the record, “Mallrats (La La La)” is one of the catchier tracks I have heard in awhile. They almost make me miss high school.

Download "Mallrats (La La La)" here.
Buy the tape here: The Orwells - Remember When (2013)

Chalk Talk - Bad Influences (2012)

No fun for the busy I suppose. You may not have the chance to take out the board for the afternoon with all your deadlines and wage labor, but I guess that is why god made surf music. Chalk Talk makes a really excellent addition to this genre. It’s hazy, hook heavy, and easy to digest in 3 minute intervals. Exactly what you are looking for in this type of thing.

On tracks like “Your’e In,” the band demonstrate that they have learned a bit from recent surf-rock revivalists and turn up the amps to 11, leaving a sense childish abandon perched over their tunes. This record has been released on vinyl by Sex Cave Records. Grab it before it is posted to a slew of best-of lists this year and enters the realm of the rare.

Get it here:
Chalk Talk - Bad Influences (2012)

MaoTzu - Smörgåsbord (2013)

MaoTzu as some of you make recall is the moniker of one Jamarcus Drake for his experimental electronic music. I laid some good praise on his 2011 full-length, Doodles, which I still stand by. With Smörgåsbord we're getting a to check out even more of his strange stylings of tunes, albeit in a rather hodgepodge manner that is unavoidable when collecting b-sides and unreleased tracks together. If you can manage to bit them off in short, delectable sections the songs are pretty righteous, or if you're a less finicky sort of listener you can ride the shifting tone and moods like a wild wave. Many of them are heavily in the video game music camp, and that's wonderful thing when well executed such as MaoTzu always is. It's easy to find some favorites and find yourself repeated playing them as part of your routines, at least as much is true for me with "SurfDateWithTheWaterGoddessAndHerBrotherWhoHatesMe" and "Haunted Beach." Hopefully you'll figure out some for yourself.

To be had here:

MaoTzu - Smörgåsbord

Mirror Mirror - Segments (2012)

Rock n' Roll isn't always a party. To reach the existential, meditative portions of our mind, the music may need to be made equally as remote. Mirror Mirror from Spokane, Washington have taken this musical mindset to its logical conclusion and produced a very fine record titled Segments. There are elements of surf, 60's, and psychedelia but it is all smothered under deep baritone vocals and 8 pounds of reverb. Just listen to The Undivine and Locked from the Inside, two of my favorite tracks off the record. The pop elements are there, but the band has bigger aims than a bobbing head at a local house party. Taking the listener to new heights and distant universes requires a different approach.

Get it here:
Mirror Mirror - Segments (2012)